Pullen Investment Management LLC Acquires Shares of 22,272 Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Pullen Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 22,272 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock, valued at approximately $1,010,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications in the 4th quarter valued at $2,300,846,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,083,337,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 3,601.6% during the 4th quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 8,937,180 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $357,398,000 after buying an additional 8,695,736 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Verizon Communications by 7.3% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 108,694,230 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $4,346,682,000 after acquiring an additional 7,421,148 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 52.7% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 19,828,378 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $792,937,000 after buying an additional 6,846,514 shares during the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on VZ. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.50 to $49.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $48.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $47.41.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 9,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.10, for a total transaction of $396,900.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 10,008 shares in the company, valued at approximately $441,352.80. This trade represents a 47.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 21,500 shares of company stock valued at $938,400. Corporate insiders own 0.10% of the company's stock.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

NYSE VZ traded down $0.21 during trading on Friday, reaching $42.96. The company's stock had a trading volume of 13,542,192 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,080,646. Verizon Communications Inc. has a twelve month low of $37.59 and a twelve month high of $47.36. The business's fifty day moving average price is $43.43 and its 200-day moving average price is $42.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.63. The firm has a market cap of $181.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.38, a P/E/G ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.38.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.15 by $0.04. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.80% and a net margin of 12.99%. The firm had revenue of $33.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.31 billion. As a group, analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a $0.6775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.31%. Verizon Communications's payout ratio is 64.52%.

Verizon Communications Company Profile

Verizon Communications Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages in the provision of communications, technology, information, and entertainment products and services to consumers, businesses, and governmental entities worldwide. It operates in two segments, Verizon Consumer Group (Consumer) and Verizon Business Group (Business).